- The Catalepticacting Connoisseur - The Devil’s Reflection.
The Connoisseur is a version of Jonah that differs from the one that is known, by the fact that she simply never decided to try and fit in with London’s judgemental Society, a Devil who did not crave power in the traditional sense and instead simply craved hedonistic pleasure beyond mortal imagination. He runs a truly ludicrous and intensely successful business down in the Criminal underbelly of the Neath no matter where that may be - he has been around for an unknowable amount of years, time does pass differently in the Jungle after all. She takes a certain amount of pride in selling Parabolan dreams of bliss to the desperate, the hopeful and especially the stupid. She provides them with carefully designed paradises of their design that has been ever so slightly nudged in the right direction by the Devil’s silver tongue, then once they are in too deep- cruelly snatching it away at just the perfect, torturous moment to leave them more than willing to sell everything and anything to keep living their ideal reality. One that they are too blinded by desperation to realise is worse than their own, lived experience. The Devil then leisurely snatches away that pesky, colourful little soul and leaves his victims very much alive… well, at least physically but tragically otherwise all but dead to the world they once lived in. If nobody comes to their aid, no friends to call upon to save them from their Viric hued prison he simply lets them rot in honey sweetened dreams. She sells fantasies of power for cheap, lust for even cheaper - it is what the Neath feasts upon, after all. The Connoisseur is, as her name would imply, a hedonistic glutton of not just food and wine, or worldly pleasures but of experiences and sensations too. This version of the Devil is one who never felt the need to be ashamed in the bone-deep way that Jonah is, who never particularly felt inclined to strive for royalty or respect in the traditional sense but has still ironically ended up with it anyway. She has quite a devoted group of followers, a Church of their own that dwells between dreams and reality in order to lure those that are worthy, that are desperate into the darkest corners of the Neath to be feasted upon by their Muse or ripped apart by honey-riddled dreamers in a fit of madness. It is a secret that this reflection is desperate to keep from the man that lives upon the other side of the glass - if Jonah was to find out about the luxurious life that it’s reflection lives even without picking up the Marvellous’ cards… oh, he would be very miserable indeed.
Strangely, the Connoisseur looks rather similar to his reflection, yet like all she does bare some noticeable differences. A softer frame, that is untouched by freckles or tattoo’s makes her rather easy upon the eyes and often underestimated. A mirrored mole just above slightly plumper lips helps to differentiate from the Jonah that is known, and of course the well-groomed goatee and longer fangs plays nicely into the more outwardly Devilish exterior. Even this Devil’s dress of fine Grecian silks draped over a cherubic form sense displays a careless, sleepy confidence that the true Jonah simply could not, cannot ever achieve.